Students living in Mexico have been regularly crossing the
border to attend school in a remote southern Arizona community, a misuse of
taxpayer funds, the state's top education official said Wednesday.

State schools Superintendent Tom Horne said an investigator
he sent to the port of entry in Lukeville videotaped students walking across
the border to a bus stop 200 yards north, then taking school buses to the
community of Ajo.

A Lukeville trailer park employee also told the investigator
that utility receipts issued as proof of residence were provided by the
trailer park, and not a real utility, Horne said. The investigator found
that addresses listed on the utility receipts at the trailer park had no
homes at those locations.

Horne said he undertook the investigation after stories
appeared in The Arizona Republic and after the Arizona attorney general's
office said it would not investigate because there was no allegation of a
crime.

"The allegation is that taxpayer funds were being misused,"
said Horne.